Excuse You
"Excuse You" is a single by jazz singer Riley Brendan. It is a cover of a single first recorded by Daniel Bedingfield, who released the song in 2004. The song was the second single to be released from Riley's debut album "Day's Go By". The single was released on March 7th, 2011 and became Riley's highest charting single to date and first top five hit, peaking at #4. Background 'Nothing Hurts Like Love' was written by superstar songwriter Diane Warren, and was first recorded by British singer Daniel Bedingfield, who released the song as the lead single from his sophomore album. Riley did not originally know that Daniel was the original artist of the song, as when he was given song suggestions by his producer of what to sing for his album, the version presented to Riley was by Hugh Sheridan, an Australian singer and actor. Nonetheless, the piano-heavy version was a perfect fit for the direction Riley was taking his sound for the album, and so he recorded it and chose it to be the first single released. Riley signed to independent label Blacklight Records prior to the commencement of his promotional campaign, and as such has been given a larger budget to work with on things such as cover artwork and music video production. Being Riley's first major industry release, a heavy promotional campaign is already underway. Reception Some were sceptical over Riley's choice of cover song, after the single was first announced - although curiosity over the major contrast between Daniel's original version and Riley's piano-lounger version took precedent, with many wondering just how Riley was going to pull it off after a previous attempt to 'jazz up' a contemporary song backfired (namely, his version of 'Call Me' by Blondie performed on URAPS Idol). The song has gotten good reviews from music critics, but it took a little longer for the general public to warm to the song. Nevertheless, by the time it was released the single had been accepted, which allowed it to chart relatively highly on the chart. A fierce chart battle between Alesha and Taylor stifled the song's success, to a degree. Tracklisting Promo CD # Excuse You (Album Version) # Excuse You (Pop Radio Mix) # Excuse You (AC Radio Mix) CD1 # Excuse You (Radio Mix) # I'm In Here # Catching Up CD2 # Excuse You (Radio Mix) # 20/20 # The Last Time # Excuse You (Sylvane Club Vocal) # Excuse You (The Syndicate Remix) Digital EP # Excuse You # Catching Up # 20/20 # Excuse You (Adrian Lux & Nause Club Mix) # Excuse You (Smoke 'N' Mirrors Club Mix) # Excuse You (Dave Aude Extended Mix) Music Video The first thing we see in the video is a woman lying on a bed, staring up at the ceiling. For a few moments she is absolutely still and unblinking, making it look like she is dead; but after a few moments the camera pulls back and we see her reacting to Riley entering the room. He sits down and begins to comb his hair, clearing preparing to leave whatever place they currently are, but the two of them begin to fight with each other. We don’t hear the words or any subtitles so we don’t know what they’re fighting about. As we reach the chorus, Riley is just about ready to leave. The woman gets up to stop him leaving, but he pulls a gun out on her, which causes her to stop and let him go. We next see Riley at some kind of stakeout, with a male accomplice holding a rifle. They are clearly up to something illegal, but what they’re up to isn’t yet clear. Through his binoculars, Riley watches a third man on the ground cause a distraction for police. With the cops distracted, Riley and the other guy make their getaway. Once they’re a fair distance from the cops, they stop and ditch the car. We see Riley pulling out his phone. He calls the middleman in their scheme, and tells him to throw a briefcase in his position out the window of a train he is escaping on. The guy does so, but is arrested just after tossing away the briefcase. Meanwhile, other cops show up while Riley and his accomplice are retrieving the case. With gunfire being hurled at them, Riley and his accomplice scramble into their getaway car with the briefcase and drive away. With the cops safely behind them, and Riley driving, the accomplice opens up the briefcase – and we find out what was so important about it; inside the case is $4 million dollars. From his spot driving the car, Riley looks down at the money. Riley pulls out a phone and pretends to dial another accomplice, so the one in the car can see. He pretends that his battery is low and he can’t use the phone, stopping the car. Riley gets out and pulls a gun on his accomplice, shooting him and taking the briefcase (and the money) for himself. The accomplice is smiling as he dies, too caught up in the moment to really know what’s going on until it’s too late. The ever-crafty Riley has another getaway vehicle stashed away right nearby the first car and the body. Taking the bloodied briefcase with him, he climbs into the next car and drives away. We jump to a slightly later point in time. Having made off with the $4 million, we see Riley relaxing on a beach. A woman brings Riley a drink; it is revealed to us that it is the woman we saw in the first part of the video. Riley seems surprised but somewhat pleased to see her. She smile at first, but she secretly has a gun hidden beneath the tray carrying the drink. With a silencer on the gun and in close proximity to Riley, she pulls the trigger. We see his body; the woman places her hat over his head to make it look like he’s merely sleeping, then swipes the briefcase from under his chair, with the $4 million still inside. As it turns out, the fight from the beginning of the video was how the money would be split, and throughout the video we saw the co-conspirators looking to cut each other out of the final pay-off. Chart Performance 'Excuse You' debuted at #4 and has so far sold 122,518 copies, becoming both his highest charting single and best selling single. The track was also Blacklight Records's first top five single, and the highest charting single until the release of That's Hot, almost a month later. It is also to date, the fourth best selling download for the label, with 47,759 downloads. Chart Run * Week 1: #4 - ?? * Week 2: #?? - ?? * Week 3: #20 - ?? * Week 4: #27 - 9,985 * Week 5: #34 - 6,023 TOTAL: 128,541